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OpenOffice gets Ubuntu-media friendly

GStreamer build

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OpenOffice has adopted the Ubuntu-friendly GStreamer media framework to reach a broader swath of Linux and Unix users.

The project created a new media back end from scratch using GStreamer, a move that de-emphasizes use of the Sun Microsystems Java Media Framework (JMF) — Sun was the largest contributor to OpenOffice before its acquisition by Oracle. JMF will be used only as a fallback option.

Time has shown that JMF seems to be a bit outdated today and that support for appropriate decoders is still not as good as expected. Enabling the support for JMF within OOo was also a not so easy task for the user, since the appropriate jmf.jar archive had to be added by hand by the user to the OOo classpath.

GStreamer is enabled by default on many Linuxes and on Unix. The OpenOffice team said: "By choosing GStreamer as our favorite framework for an up to date multimedia back end, we hope to serve as much Linux and Solaris OpenOffice.org customers as best as possible."

Oracle, meanwhile, said it has joined the SQLite Consortium to demonstrate its "sincere desire to be a good citizen and partner" in the community. The move comes in the wake of Oracle's recent launch of products that add new support for the SQLite3 API.

In joining the consortium, Oracle said it would gain access to more-complete test suites to validate its combined BDB SQL(ite) API.

"When we find and fix bugs or make improvements to the SQLite code it is our intention to provide that code to the SQLite team for integration into their product. We don't want to see SQLite fork, we will work to continually integrate and cooperate with the SQLite developers," Oracle said. ®